Arron Fisher has banked one of the best looking carp recently, in the form of the UK's biggest fully scaled mirror carp, at a monumental weight of 61lb 6oz.
After fishing the Manor Carp Fishery in Hampshire, in October and landing carp to 34lb, The "Lord" evaded him and it was the return trip in, April 2024, that saw Arron secure his new personal best.
With conditions totally opposite to the previous trip, Arron opted for a change in tactics and location which eventually paid off in tremendous style.
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"The weather for the last four months has been atrocious rain wise, and the lake was way up compared to our last trip. Where our rods had sat in October would now be in a foot of water," Arron explained.
"I was in a conundrum of where to fish if I came out well in the draw. I don’t usually have much luck in the draws, but amazingly I came out No.1."
After a thorough walk around Arron settled on a swim known as 'the Pipes' due to a favourable wind blowing into the area. After finding some spots he deployed his most trusted rigs and bait combinations for this time of year.
"After a lead around I found three spots, clipped up my spod rod and put 5 spombs of, RG Baits Red Sea Squid crumb, pellet and some matching liquid in," he said.
"On two rods I had solid bags, one with a matching Red Sea Squid pop up, the other with a Tropicana pop up. The third rod down towards the bottom tree line had a matching Red Sea Squid pop up on a stiff hinge rig with a trusty Lakebed Lead."
It didn't take long for the tactics to prove how effective they are as Arron quickly got amongst the fish landing a mid-double mirror that evening. A take the following morning would have him truly mind blown however...
"I had a feeling the hinge stiff rig is sitting too high in the water and was about to reel in and change it. With that, that exact rod started screaming off. I dropped my phone ran past my waders, which I needed, and hit the rod," he stated.
"Initially it didn’t feel anything special, but then it woke up and just tore off to the right. Generally not a problem, except when the water levels are up so much and there are trees and reeds in either margin, further out than you are stood."
"At the time I thought the decision was nuts but in hindsight it was the best I had made in a while. I jumped straight in and waded to the drop off in just my shorts and T-shirt. This gave me a better angle to play the fish."
This turned out to be a great decision as the fish Arron originally thought was another smaller fish revealed itself not long after he took the plunge...
"By now I had realised it was a bit more lumpy than I had thought but still hadn’t seen it. Then out of the blue I saw a flash of a heavily scaled mirror, still none the wiser, I thought “it looks a cracker," Arron told us.
"It then turned and came to the surface and showed me its whole flank. At this point my composure completely fell apart, I was attached to “The Lord” last out at over sixty pounds.
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With Arron understandably in shock, the fish managed to get itself into one of the marginal snags, with the fish starting to bury itself he feared the worst.
"The fish made a run for the reed line and with my brain now not working, I was too slow to react. With the fish now in the edge of the reeds and the rod starting to lock up, I waded that little bit further and put a bit of pressure on," he said.
Thankfully, being an experienced angler, Arron carefully steered the fish away from the snags and one of the biggest UK carp was safely slipped into the waiting net.
"He flicked his head and to my disbelief, freed himself and swam back out into open water.
"The next time I saw him was as he slid over the cord and into the net.
"There he was, the Lord of the Manor and a hopeful dream, was mine."
"I would like to thank my other sponsors Tailored Angler Clothing and Cazbar Innovations for their continued support which helped me achieve this goal," he said!
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